::. DAVID COOK IS THE AMERICAN IDOL! .::

DAVID COOK WINS AMERICAN IDOL! WOOHOO!


gang sign for the cookies!

I was so ecstatic when I heard the news via text messages and phone calls! My bet, the rocker hottie David Cook is THE American Idol of Season 7! I just watched the re-run of the finale over at Star World and I swear I cried as I felt Cookie's emotional man-sob (don't you just want to hug him when he cries like that? awwww...) as his name was announced as THE winner of the season. He cried in all his guyliner glory. He soooo deserves it as he is a true artist who never compromised his individuality with his song choices and such. And since I have heard his pre-Idol album Analog Heart already, I could definitely say that he's got an awesome talent.

don't you just wanna hug cookie? awww...

i would have rooted for Archuleta if he wasn't facing off against Cook...

Little David's a good kid -- if only his father Jeff didn't get such bad press...

After Simon Cowell's declaration of a knockout last night, I was prepared for the worst -- David Archuleta winning and all. Not that I don't want Archu to win per se... the charming kid's got awesome power ballad talent and his brilliant voice also makes him deserving of the spot. If it were a Syesha-Archuleta finale, I would have rooted for Archuleta. But hey, the Cookie's got my heart (and the rest of the poopoo gang's hearts as well! *gang sign*). He had me at "Hello" ;-) I have played his versions of Hello, Billie Jean, Always Be My Baby, Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, etc. so many times that the people in the office must be so tired of hearing my iTunes on Idol Cookie mode these past few weeks :p

I'm so glad that Cook did not "suffer" the same fate of Chris Daughtry in AI. But hey, isn't it a bit weird that in the mini-montage in the Boxing match episode featured Daughtry instead of Taylor Hicks?! Just goes to prove that indeed Daughtry has enjoyed more success than his fellow Idolmates McPhee and Hicks.

Anyway, about tonights finale... I loved the Brian Adams number, Jason Castro's Hallelujah (whoa, for a while there I was scared he would miss the same final note he messed up the last time!), Mike Myers and Jimmy Kimmel segments... and the ZZ Top-Cook number if only to see Cookie do that leg dance thing again. The OneRepublic-Archuleta number of "Apologize" would have been nice if only OneRepublic didn't crack on his vocals. I say, Little David sang Apologize better than the original artist! :p

the best AI season I've ever watched! :-)

My season faves are: Cook, Castro and Archuleta.

I'll sleep happily tonight. All that "DAVID COOK FTMFW!" has finally materialized! =) Congratulations Team Cookies!

photos grabbed from yahoo news.

::. I LEFT MY LONGGANISA IN VIGAN .::

My friends (Tin& Abbie and the coosome-twosome Charo & Jako) and I just came from a memorable vacation in Vigan, Ilocos Sur last May 16-17. I'll post more details/photos once I've gathered all my thoughts and have collected all the photos from the digicams of Jako & Charo, Tin and Abbie ;-)

::. DON'T WANNA MISS THIS COOKIE! .::

As rickey.org states: OMG — Are they testing out the waters for a CORONATION SONG? *gasp*

As I heard the first few notes of the violin, I got goosebumps... in the same vein as his live performance of "Always be my Baby", the violin accompaniment totally added an extra dose of awesomeness (Barney HIMYM talking!) to David Cook's performance of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". I actually liked this better than his "Dare You to Move" number (which I felt was a bit bitin). I do hope iTunes would have the full version of both Aerosmith and Switchfoot covers (is that too much to ask?!). His "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" performance proves that he can still do mellow numbers as good as his rock-out performances.

So okay, 'gotta admit that David Archuleta -- even if he seemed to be out of breath while trying to do the R&B dance while singing -- was cute when he did Chris Brown's "With You". At least he tried to sing something more pop than his usual power ballads...

Simon says: David Cook wins the night!
I say: DAVID COOK is THE American Idol of Season 7!!!

DAVID COOK FTMFW!!!

::. WTF?! MY BLOG POST WAS PLAGIARIZED! .::

First off, let's define plagiarism:

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means

1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
2. to use (another's production) without crediting the source
3. to commit literary theft
4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

But can words and ideas really be stolen?

According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).
All of the following are considered plagiarism:

* turning in someone else's work as your own
* copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
* failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
* giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
* changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit * copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

If I change the words, do I still have to cite the source?

Changing only the words of an original source is NOT sufficient to prevent plagiarism. You must cite a source whenever you borrow ideas as well as words.

http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/plagiarism_faq.html


So anyway, I just got this comment from my post re: my Mantigue Island/Camiguin trip last year. The anonymous poster asked if this was my multiply account. When I checked the link he/she gave, I realized why he/she thought it was my multiply. I read familiar words! The pathetic literary-retard/plagiarist blogger has copied virtually everything from my post! The nerve!

Click on the photos to see what Lala the Blog Plagiarist posted on her site... I screencapped it just in case she restricts viewing rights/deletes her multiply post in this URL:

http://twinklelala.multiply.com/photos/album/118/Mantigue_Island_Camiguin
And here are the screencaps of my blog post last year which she undeniably plagiarized: http://lilacstardust.blogspot.com/2007/07/island-hopping-in-camiguin.html#comments

Why in the world would she plagiarize my post?
a) she is too much of a dimwit to put her own experiences into words

b) she graduated from plagiarism university and majored in copy-pasting

c) she super-flunked all her English and Literature classes so she doesn't know how to construct words into this simple intelligible body of work called "blog"

d) she thought it was a one in a million probability that I would find out that she ripped off my blog post

e) she is a massive disgrace to the blogosphere and she is too much of a dunce to actually know that

f) she is royally constipated coz her subject and verb disagreed with her.

Feel free to add more reasons.

::. SINGAPORE TRAVEL-LAH! .::

APRIL 30:

After our conference in Indonesia, we stayed overnight at the Carlton Hotel in Singapore. We checked in and then went to the nearby Raffles City mall. The peculiar thing I noticed in Singapore was that sunset came around 7:30PM. Anyway, around 8PM, Ed's former colleague in Kodak Singapore brought us at the East Coast Parkway for a sumptuous dinner feast of black pepper crab, chili crab, prawns and fish at the Red House seafood restaurant. After dinner, we had a joyride into the city and passed by Clarke Quay, the Merlion Park, CHIJMES, one of the routes for the upcoming F1 Grand Prix on Sept, etc.

MAY 1:

We went to Ikea and shopped for home stuff. I wish I could furnish my bedroom and office space with Ikea stuff... their items are nice :)


After Ikea, we went back to the hotel and checked out. The others prepared for their flight back home while Vic and I proceeded to Hotel Royal at Newton Street to check in for an overnight stay. Our former officemate Melis who had just relocated to Singapore with her family met us for lunch. We ate lunch at Doc Green's at VivoCity. Shopped around and bought a pair of white sandals at Charles and Keith and a black Bossini top for office wear. We then ate an early dinner at the Food Republic atop VivoCity, where the wading pools were and where one could see the entrance to Sentosa.

see the yellow sentosa express train behind me?

with vic and melis (see the cable cars to sentosa behind us)

wading pools full of children behind me...

Took some photos and then had my first MRT ride to Lavender station where we walked a bit to get to Melis' condo. Hung out there, had some beer/coffee and waited til her hubby and son arrived. Their smart and creative son Tod (aka Todzilla!) showed us his Paintbrush masterpieces of a variety of Godzilla stuff. Vic and I asked him to make us a Viczilla and Aileenzilla version (I told him to make mine colored violet and cute). We also took the opportunity to use the net for our KrisFlyer internet check-in (coz internet isn't free in the hotel!). Melis took us to the poolside and the rooftop... their place was sooo nice :)

MAY 2:

Vic had her scheduled flight back home in the afternoon so we split for the day... She went to Sentosa while I went to the Singapore Zoo. I took an adventure and rode the MRT to the Ang Mo Kio MRT station to catch the Bus #138 to the zoo. I had no problem finding the Novena MRT station near our hotel. I just counted how many stops until the Ang Mo Kio station just to be sure I didn't miss it. What I had some trouble finding was the damned bus stop for Bus#138! I went outside the MRT station/mall at Ang Mo Kio and checked out 3 different Bus stops nearby and I didn't see the number 138 on all those bus stops. After about 25 minutes of walking around the area, I decided to go back inside the MRT station. Somehow, I found my way into an indoor bus station which was inside the same building where I got off the MRT and magically found the stop for Bus#138. I was able to use the same card I used for the MRT... so efficient! It was a long bus ride -- about an hour. I arrived at 9am at the Singapore Zoo and availed of my unlimited tram ride -- one of the Singapore Airlines boarding pass privileges that saved me SGD5/ride. And believe me, with the area size of the Singapore Zoo, you would want to hop on the tram once in awhile or you'd be so tired from walking!

I super enjoyed the Singapore Zoo coz it had an "open zoo" concept. Such an awesome experience for animal lovers (or even just plain animal-curious!). I specifically wanted to see the Singapore-born polar bear Inuka coz where else can you find a polar bear in tropical Asia?!? The second animal in my must-see list were the white tigers. I wandered around and took photos in the zoo for about 3.5hours.








See more of my Singapore Zoo photos here...
View videos of Inuka the (son of Sheeba) polar bear eating his favorite watermelon treat and swimming around; Sheeba the momma polar bear waving to everyone...

After eating lunch in one of the zoo's restaurant, I took a cab (faster travel time, just 30minutes) back to Hotel Royal to check out and then proceeded to my next hotel (a cheaper one since I had no one to share rooms with anymore) -- South East Asia Hotel. It was just beside the famous Kwan Im Chinese Temple and very near to the Sri Krishnan Hindu Temple. After resting my feet for a few minutes, I proceeded for gadget accessories shopping at Sim Lim Square -- the famous electronics mecca of Singapore. Six storeys worth of gadgets and accessories! Shopped for my dad's bilins: digicam batteries for his Canon DSLR and mom's Kodak digicam. Checked out the price of a certain Canon lens that my dad wanted. Went to the upper floors and bought laptop sleeves (only SGD21!), laptop vacuum cleaner (only SGD9!), 2GB Kingston SD card (only SGD15!) and some iPod accessories.

After a tiring shopping spree at Sim Lim Square, I dropped off my best buys at the hotel, rested a bit and then proceeded to the Bugis MRT station. Alighted at the City Hall MRT station to get to the CityLink Mall where I ate dinner at O'Brien's cafe. Got mom a watch in one of the stores and then proceeded to Suntec City Mall. I intended to take a photo of the famous Fountain of Wealth at Suntec but I got umm, "sidetracked" and ended up buying 3 pairs of sandals at Charles & Keith as the store was about to close. By the time I was done shopping, the sales lady said the Fountain of Wealth was already turned off :(

Using the map, I successfully found my way to the durian-shaped Esplanade Theatres and the Merlion park. Had no problem having my picture taken in those famous landmarks since there were always Filipino tourists around ;-) After traversing the long bridge from the Esplanade to the Merlion Park, I proceeded to walk towards Victoria Theatre where a statue of Sir Stamford Raffles (Singapore's founder) stood. At almost midnight, I was too tired to walk further on but regretted that I missed a spectacular photogenic sight of St. Andrew's Cathedral which I saw as my cab drove off a few meters away from Victoria Theatre. Anyway, I got back at the hotel around 1am, so thirsty and hungry. I went to a nearby 7-11 and an Indian-owned convenience store to buy bottled water and some food. They say that Singapore's tap water is potable but I was too squeamish to drink straight from the faucet. Made sure I filled up the GST refund vouchers before I went to sleep! (Needed to claim the refund at the airport before I check in...)






MAY 3:

Woke up late coz I was so tired from the previous all-day all-night walkathon across the city. I wanted to catch a quick ride to the City Hall MRT station to take a photo of St. Andrew's Cathedral but I thought I would run out of time. Anyway, I just refunded the remaining value on my MRT/bus card. So I decided to explore Bugis Junction instead. Managed to buy another office top from there. On my way back to the hotel, I checked out the street vendors at Bugis Street. I spent my last few Singapore dollars on this cool vintage-look shirt with a camera print. At 11:30AM, I got back at the hotel, quickly took a bath and checked out. Sally, my colleague in Singapore, picked me up at the hotel and brought me to Changi Airport. She showed me around at the new Terminal 3. She treated me to lunch in one of the cafes at the 3-Top (I tasted the laksa she ordered... twas too spicy for me!). She then dropped me off at Terminal 2 so I could claim my GST refund, check-in and do some last-minute shopping.


at the 3-Top at Terminal 3...

I explored the Sunflower Garden and Koi Pond, rested at the entertainment deck for awhile and then went shopping for some chocolates for my nephew, Charles and Keith bag for my sis and sunglasses for me :)


at the sunflower garden atop Terminal 2
by the koi pond at Terminal 2... i love my cheap vintage style shirt!

More Uniquely Singapore sights here...

Yeah. Suffice it to say that I'll be out of moolah for the next coupla weeks after this Singapore vacation! :p

::. EI ASEAN CONFERENCE @ BINTAN, INDONESIA .::

Flew off to Singapore last April 27 (Sunday) on the first flight SQ915 at 8:20AM. Didn't have to line up for check-in coz I already printed my boarding pass and chose my seat via KrisFlyer's internet check-in :)

From Singapore's Changi Airport, we proceeded to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to catch the 2pm ferry to Bintan Island in Indonesia. The ferry ride was horrible! The floating platform at the boarding area was so wobbly that we got a bit dizzy already... and we're not even IN the boat yet! I had to make a little jump at the cue ("go!") of the crew who were holding us as we jumped into the ferry. {On our ferry back to Singapore, as I was jumping off the boat, I probably looked nervous coz the crew member who was assisting me said "Don't worry, Miss." } You know that lurching feeling inside your stomach when you ride Anchors Away at Enchanted Kingdom? Imagine feeling that for an hour and a half! Yeah, riding the Arung Mendara ferry to Bintan was THAT bad. But thanks to Pfizer's Bonamine, I did not have to use the blue motion sickness bag:) My officemates Jane, Vic and Bianx all had motion sickness and Ed had to attend to Jane & Bianx while I attended to Vic. We weren't able to eat lunch before we rode the ferry so we were so famished by the time we got to Bintan. By the way, Indonesia was 1 hour behind Phils./S'pore time.

the hotel lobby and the fish faucet that fascinated me...

beautifully crafted indonesian dolls/puppets for sale at the hotel shop...

Upon arrival at Bintan Lagoon Resort, the first few things we saw in our room was a can of Baygon spray and packs of a local insect repellent. Hmm. That didn't offer a comforting thought. I guess we were in the company of a variety of island bugs, yikes! True enough, our al fresco welcome dinner by the beach was occasionally marked with a small insect drowning on the strawberry syrup for the dessert cakes and some big bugs flying over our starry starry night sky.

tourists beware... arm thyself with this!

We were basically cooped up in our conference room from April 28 to 29 as we listened to everyone's presentations regarding marketing/sales strategies, a Fuji vs. HD vs. Kodak case study and an interesting Digital (HD) vs. Film presentation from a guest cinematographer from Singapore. The team went to the hotel's videoke after dinner on the 28th but I wasn't able to get a chance to enjoy it coz I, along with two of my Singaporean colleagues in charge of inventory had to access our ERP system that night... had to do some urgent work done coz we were having an inventory discrepancy back in the Philippines (ugh! I didn't even get to drink the margarita I ordered at the videoke bar!)

We had a free night to ourselves on the 29th so Vic and I joined our Thai colleagues for a night out of the hotel. Upon our local contact's recommendation, we went to this tourist plaza called Pasar Oleh Oleh. Not much, really. Just some restaurants serving local food and a number of shops selling expensive (rip-off!) tourist souvenirs. I was liking this small wooden jar (about the size of a Clinique All About Eyes jar) with a bright intricately painted design but it costed around Php500. No way! So anyway, we ate our dinner at Cafe Helo Helo wherein we ordered garlic fried Shrimp, Tom Yam soup, grilled fish and fried cuttlefish. Twas a good meal for about SGD 16.50/head (about Php511).

the entrance to pasar oleh oleh

the facade of cafe helo helo

bintang beer served on a heineken mug, hehe...

a traditional hut at the middle of the plaza

group picture at the entrance

On April 30, we had a team building at the Adventure Training Centre, conducted by Focus Adventure. Man, I am so not outdoorsy but I had fun doing the giant seesaw thing :) Didn't have as much fun though on the wooden skis thing coz it was so exhausting to pull the ropes up -- I had chafed my palms red in the process :( Had to hold ice cubes on my hand to relieve the redness. BUt anyway, overall, the team building day was fun. But come night time when we were already in Singapore, I felt my upper thighs ache from all that effort I don't normally exert everyday.

go team goooo!

the giant seesaw: a balancing act

the wooden skis: super effort walking and picking up of balls

More photos of our team building here...